Since science fiction shows are popping up all over television instead of being confined to that channel with the unspeakable name, why not one topic for all of them? The highly anticipated FlashForward starts tonight on ABC; let's all cross our fingers and hope that it's not another Virtuality or Defying Gravity. And only a few more weeks until the premiere of Stargate Universe.

This way, those poor, benighted souls who never discovered the exquisite joys of science fiction can just skip this topic and not have to worry about running into SF talk in the Television 2009 topic.

Good idea, on the eve of a new SF series on ABC. I'm back to wait-and-see on FlashForward. Soft SF, but that's OK. It mimics Lost's opening episode, and while that was effective, it makes me question the originality behind the show.

Not a whole lot of originality here, no. The Airport plot is a cliché now...we're given glimpses of the private lives of characters who don't know each other but who are brought together by some catastrophic event. But I'm hoping FlashForward doesn't fall into the same trap Heroes did...plots that keep getting more and more complicated because the writers can't figure out a way to resolve earlier complications. I do like the look of the show, though. Very slick. And I like the gimmick of having everyone on earth lose consciousness at the same time, for 2 hours and 17 minutes.

Good solution to the topic-naming problem, Barbara. But when this topic fills up and it's time to start a new one, you might consider removing the space between "SF" and "TV". One fat acronym is always better than two skinny ones.

Yes, Village of the Damned, John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos. Well, it's beginning to look as if there's nothing original in FlashForward at all. It does have a nice stylish look to it, but that won't compensate for routine stories. But hey, it's only the first episode. It's certainly worth a further look.

If I remember it right, Rob Sawyer's book (basis of the show) was as much concerned with the how of the phenomenon as the why. His characters were scientists, not just varieties of Everyman. It's an extremely loose adaptation.

Stargate Universe could have had a better opening. Young guy solves a video game problem and that's enough to send him to outer space. That's a direct steal from The Last Starfighter. It was OK there, because that was a "caper" movie. But in a series trying to be dark SF? No way.

Let's see, now. A mixed group of military personnel and civilians escapes from an attack by boarding an old ship and then get lost and must find their way back to Earth. Didn't we just watch that series? Four fragmented seasons of it?